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10 Year Anniversary + A Giveaway: Week One

Big News! This week marks the 10th Anniversary of Art School Dropout as a brand! EXCITING!!

Ten years ago this week I finally sat down and chose a name for my then very very small hobby like business. At the time I was just selling handmade bags to a local shop in Baltimore called 9th Life, but I had a feeling it could be more. So it needed a name. After a bit of thought, I came up with Art School Dropout, it fit kinda well with my past and with what I wanted to do. I’m glad I chose it!

Pretty soon after choosing a name I started selling in a few online consignment shops which led to a few brick and mortar shops. I started adding jewelry to the list of things I made, and that’s when things started going faster. I had made a few wire wrapped crescent shaped pendant pieces out of vintage flowers and glass beads all by accident while playing around one day. I loved how they were set up, and decided to call them Juxtapose Necklaces. I added them to my brand spanking new shop (pure simple html with some paypal buttons here and there) and talked about them for a brief moment on my livejournal. Within an hour I sold all of them, actually I over sold a few since I wasn’t prepared and just had paypal buttons that didn’t have a quantity, or sold out option. I was ecstatic! I went out and bought some more supplies and made a few more…

Fast forward to now. It’s been 10 years and the brand Art School Dropout has grown to be way more than I ever expected. I have expanded my line of what I make A LOT. I have grown as a crafter and artist. I have been able to travel the United States more than I thought I would in such a short time. I have met some of my favorite people in the world who continue to inspire and support me on a daily basis. It’s all amazing, and I couldn’t have done it without out all of you! When I say you, I mean all the loyal customers and readers, who support handmade and understand it’s worth and that there is a real person behind it all.

So to say thank you, for the next four week I will be hosting a giveaway each Monday. I will choose an item each week that I feel represents the growth of Art School Dropout, items that helped me make it to 10 years!

The first week’s giveaway will be representing the piece of jewelry that sped up Art School Dropout’s growth in the beginning. I made close to 1500 of these things in 10 years! So here we have a Garden Necklace, a piece that is very similar in style to the original Juxtapose Necklace. The later pieces were much larger and had more random pieces in them, you can see a lot of the pieces I made here.

Now here’s the rules:

This giveaway is for ONE garden necklace, specifically the one shown above. The contest starts right this second and ends Friday, May 10 at 8 p.m. EST when comments will be closed. At which time I will choose a random winner from the comments section below using random.org. The winner’s name will be added to this blog post soon after. If the first winner does not reply back to an email sent out within 24 hours, a second winner will be chosen. So please make sure to give your correct email address! Each giveaway item will be shipped out the day the next giveaway starts until the fourth week when it will be shipped out three days later. This weeks giveaway is open to international readers (upcoming weeks may not be due to size, so please keep that in mind)

To enter all you have to do is comment below answering my favorite question…

What is your favorite color combination? (mine’s teal and gray)

I know I’ve used this one before, but I seriously get so much inspiration from all the answers! I can’t wait to read the responses!!

This giveaway happens to coincide with Sew Mama Sew’s biannual giveaway day. So after you’ve entered here, why not stop on by her blog and see what everyone else is offering! Also, if you are a new visitor because of giveaway day, WELCOME!!

If your interested in any of the Juxtapose Necklaces that are available right now, check out the shop!

Oh, and if you would like to keep up to date about the next three giveaways (one a week) why not add us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or follow us on your favorite blog reader! (my favorite is Bloglovin) I will be posting on all of those platforms each time a giveaway starts and right before one ends!!

This giveaway is CLOSED! but keep an eye out all month, because each week we’ll have a new prize to win!!

oh, that is spectacular. i love so many colors, but i find myself gravitating to blues and whites the most. they’re just so crisp in combination – and i think i pull that inspiration from the sky. there’s very little as beautiful as a deeply blue summer sky with white clouds.

I adored a combination of yellow and grey for a very long time but lately my favorite has been jade and copper!
Thanks for the chance to win that beautiful necklace and wish you an awesome 10th anniversary!

Generally it’s shades of blue with – anything! Whether it’s sea colors (blues with greens) or it’s turquoise with brown, or it’s navy/teal/grey, or aqua and white, or navy and orange, or navy, aqua and red… anything goes with shades of blue.

I think my favorite combos are pink/grey and blue/yellow. This is a lovely necklace, thanks so much for the chance to win it. I love your blog name, it is what made me click on your thumbnail to begin with. Then I started reading some of the history and saw the necklace. Congrats on all your success, I hope in ten years I can say as much about myself! Here’s to an even bigger next 10 for you!

I looove black and pink or mint, but I really like the light color to be a stripe, bc with a stripe you can make a chevron pattern by folding the item…and the solid black really sets off the “chevroned” color and makes it pop! Thx so much, Z

I love the energy created by using complimentary colors, especially red and green, but whenever I create something with red and green it’s immediately followed up with my thoughts “ugh, christmas colors”, so I usually try and put a spin on it using 3 colors like red, green and lime green, or red and turquoise.
For juxtapose necklaces I love green and brown.

Right now I really like purple and light blue. I just had a daughter and am trying to make girly but not overly girly clothes for her. Congratulations on ten years! It’s always great to read stories about how life works out for people.

Thank you! The idea of ten years is so weird to me, but makes me smile! and good luck with the sewing! I make dresses for my daughter all the time, and to make them not AS girly I’ll use material with things like comic books on them. :) She loves them and so does my husband.